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Herb Gardner:
A Failure
To Write Creatively
i
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I
A PIECE OF THE ACTION. By
herb Gardner. Simon and
Schuster. New York. 313 pages.
$3.95.
"A PIECE of the Action," Herb
Gardner's first novel, is a
"novel of experience" as distinct
from the "novel of invention," and
one in which the author has not
fulfilled his obligation to write
creatively,
The "novel of experience" is
built with the materials of the
author's own life, the life of a
contemporary, or the popular
knowledge of a public figure. The
facts are not altered, although an
author is free to interpolate purely
imagined events.
What comes from this depend-
ence on true experience is a core
Sell Al
Books fo
a
WAI
of common experience, and it Is day - to - day happenings, but in exposure to the business world
this repetition of first love and terms of what areas of interest almost costs him his integrity.
war and the quest for success that his protagonist comes to first, be It is not that the events of his
imposes an artistic obligation on it family or boys or girls, book seem to come from Gardner's
the author's right to express him- A new book, "Your Turn To own life that is unfortunate. It is
self. Curtsy, My Turn To Bow," shows that his reluctance to take a
This is in contrast with the how William Goldman can take chance with his materials com-
"novel of invention," where the a common experience, young love, pels considering his book only as
subject - matter introduces so and recount that experience as if colorful exposition.
unique an experience that there it were an utterly new thing.
are no concomitant demands on He brings this about with his GARDNER'S faults go beyond
the narrative technique which narrative technique; the adult the refusal to seek out a mean-
must be the strength of an ex- narrator can stand well away from ingful method of narration.
periential story, the summer and the summer's love, Even in what he does do, he
able both to ttll his story and to is lax. He succumbs, several times,
HOW THE STORY is told is part address himself to the reader, in to what can be called "the toilet-
1' of the value there. Compare a way that makes the experiences seat corollary." Teachers of writ-
William Goldman's "The Temple set down more meaningful, a ing condemn the practice of allow-
of Gold" with any of Jack Kerou- method that suggests the writings ing a character to indulge in
ac's three "first" novels. of Henry Fielding. mental soliloquies while fighting
Goldman orders the experience or running to catch a bus or put-
of growing up, not as a record of KEEGUAC'S "The Town and the ting the cat out; rather that the
___City," published nearly eight character thinks about things at
years ago, has nothing to organize a time of reposes, in bathtubs and
it except the succession of events elsewhere.
that comprise a boy's passing to Lou Gracie's first love is the
I Y our the age of manhood. sub-plot in this novel; and the
The book is further hampered author gives us the details of what
by the author's borrowed articula- has proceeded before the start of
r C A SH ! tion, in that he writes sporadically the novel, with the protagonist
like Thomas Wolfe. His books are sitting alone in a restaurant, while
a naked attempt to set down per- he contrives an otherwise unneces-
sonal experience, and it is his sary ride in a taxicab to facilitate
intent that demands creative writ- another time of reflection.
ing to lift his work above the Gardner includes'several good/
H R 'S ordinary. bad dialogues, usually drunken,
A superb example of creative conducted inside Lou's head. The
writing, where the narrative tech- technique simplifies the presenta-
nique transforms the common ex- tion of material that would be
perience into a work of art, is better worked out through the
Wright Morris' "The Huge Sea- protagonist's interaction with the
son." other characters.
The main parts of the story are
separated by a thirty-year inter- GARDNER'S few attempts to
val; a group of people who met in order his book misfire because
the Twenties must live through a they also are too easily done.
crisis, later, precipitated by their These are where he sets up er-
ties to one another. tain crisises by establishing prece-
trim Their initial relationships are dents for them earlier in the novel,
portrayed in sections of an un- as when he stresses the integrity
finished novel by one of the pro- of a character whose betrayal is
tagonists, and sections of this pivotal to the action and how he
novel are introduced at various underlines the self -consciousness
atimes in the narrative. That the that forces Lou to botch a rela-
man Foley has been unable to tionship with one of three women
finish his novel is also a factor in in the book.
D a the story itself. Likewise, the ending loses force
d e o air Although "The Huge Season" is because the crisis takes place in
not a first novel, it is a successful the protagonist's head, raising the
example of what is meant by an question of why the resolution had
tailored author's obligation to write crea- to happen then and there.
tively when his materials are not It would be wrong just to pay
born in the imagination, lip-service to Herb Gardner's very
formidable abilities. A few of the
NoW IS THE TIME to show how scenes that show him off best in-
what has been said applies to elude: the whole relationship be-
"A Piece of the Action," the book tween Lou and his uncle Vic, but
actually being reviewed here. mainly the scene in the new car;
Gardner fails in his book mainly Lou's drunken encounter with the
because he takes no creative little girl, some of Lou's love for
chances; he just lets things hap- Nina, and the young-old impu-
pen, dence that Lou shows during the
This is, first of all, a search- cocktail-hour contract hassle.
for-success story. "A Piece of the Talent is there, but it needs
Action" is the story of a young de- more discipline than that which
signer who invents a similar char- comes with the impulse to try one's
acter called The Slob; the book hand at writing a novel.
tells how Lou Gracie's premature -Burton Beerman
>3
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III
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